Acer Aspire V5 brings the optical drive back from the dead

You spin me right round, baby

Acer has gone back to the future with its new Haswell-powered Aspire V5 range of ultrabooks by equipping them with an inbuilt optical media drive.

But before you begin to scoff and make jokes about Betamax, MiniDisks and Zip drives, it should be noted that the Aspire V5-561P's drive is M-DISCTM enabled.

Compatible M-DISCs are capable of storing up to 4.78GB of data permanently thanks to containing a layer that doesn't deteriorate when files are copied or transferred, unlike regular rewritable CDs, and their robustness is so that they are used by the US Department of Defense.

Bonding time

The Aspire V5-561P also features a 15.6-inch HD LED-backlit display with 10-point multi touch with what Acer calls Direct Bonding technology, which apparently increases contrast ratio and improves the viewing experience.

It houses up to 16GB of RAM alongside AMD's Radeon R7 or R5 discrete graphics card, and Dolby Digital PlusTM Home Theater surround sound is onboard to help turn your living room into a local M-DISC-oteque.

Connectivity options include HDMI and VGA for hooking up the laptop to external displays, alongside a USB 3.0 port and SD card slot.

The Acer Aspire V5-5561P is available now starting €599 (around £496/USD$906).